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Angels confident they'll sign first-round pick

The Angels select left-handed pitcher Sean Newcomb with the 15th pick of the 2014 First-Year Player Draft

By Alden Gonzalez and Matthew DeFranks
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MLB.com |

ANAHEIM -- The Angels have yet to reach an agreement with their first-round Draft pick, left-handed starter Sean Newcomb, but are confident they'll get it done before the July 18 deadline to sign amateur players.

"We're not close to anything," Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto said. "We're continuing to talk. There's been normal rhetoric and we're confident that Sean wants to be an Angel and that we'll get this done."

Newcomb, 21, was plucked out of the University of Hartford by the Angels with the 15th overall selection, representing the organization's first first-round pick in three years.

Newcomb is listed at 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, with an electric fastball that sits in the mid-90s, an above-average curveball and a developing slider and changeup that could make him an effective four-pitch starter in the Majors someday. He went 8-2 with a 1.25 ERA in 14 starts for the Hartford Hawks during his junior season, striking out 106 batters and walking 38 in 93 1/3 innings, and has been compared to Red Sox ace Jon Lester.

Major League Baseball has recommended a $2,475,600 signing bonus for the 15th overall pick.

"He's a college kid, but he's just starting to find out who he is," Angels scouting director Ric Wilson said recently. "We'll monitor him moving forward, and at his pace, there's no telling what he can do."